Lovely Little Miss Zombie Killer
“Objective: Keep the Uninfected, uninfected.” I muttered rereading the simple black letters written on my rap sheet and sighed, holding up a hand to keep the hot Cameroon sun from burning out my eyeballs as I squinted into nothing but desert. I suddenly wished I was wearing something a little less…dark than my ripped black jeans and dark grey T with the words “Kill, Kill, Kill” aptly scrawled in black across the center, the ensemble was completed of course by my leather jacket and steel toed boots.
I sighed, welcome to W.A.Z. I thought bitterly, the human War Against Zombies campaign; no one had expected the outbreak to happen, no one but the big wig scientists and politicians that is but soon after Z-Day happened, W.A.Z. was formed and the Z.A. task forces were assembled by America’s Finest. My name is Jo Dillinger and I’ve just been recruited into the Z.A. task force stationed in the deadliest Outbreak Zone in the world.
I looked back at the airport terminal buzzing behind me; there was nothing to go back to so I just kept going forward. There was supposed to be a car waiting for me and as I scanned the parking lot, I did a double take as I saw a very pretty man holding a card board sign with my name on it. He was unfairly gorgeous; he wore a smug grey T shirt and blue jeans to his muscular six-foot-something frame, sunglasses covered his eyes and he had curly black hair hanging around his face. My breath hitched, I wasn’t the prettiest woman in the world but I knew I was fair; my father was Native American and my mother Brazilian, so I was graced with high cheek bones, full lips, and olive skin. I had a mane of dark brown curls reaching just above my shoulders and my mother’s emerald eyes, I was maybe, a little too tall, standing at 5’10 but it didn’t stop my body from curving in all those places men looked. And if he looked he never let it show.
He smiled at me and my heart did a very girly flip in my chest, “Are you Miss Jo Bower?” he drawled in a deep Southern accent that made my heart do that flippy thing again.
I bit the inside of my cheek and smiled at him, “I am.” I muttered and held out my hand.
His hand was warm and calloused and manly as he took mine, “Luc Harper.” He muttered and took my duffel from me and put it in the back of a black highlander. He opened the passenger door for me and then went around the front to the driver’s seat.
The tan leather was hot and shimmied out of my leather jacket to cool down making sure not to jostle my Z.A. arm band, Luc turned the ignition and blissful cool air pumped through the car; I ran my fingers through my hair and glanced over at him but he was looking at the road as he peeled out of the parking lot.
“When we get to the camp, I’ll introduce you to the crew but you won’t be able to meet the Commander until later tonight then you and I will start with some assessment training to see what we’ll have to work with. We have a mission in three days, that’s how long you’ll have to train.” Luc explained, “Understood?”
I nodded, “Yes sir.” I replied, sure I would like to ogle Luc Harper in action training me but I needed to see the Commander as soon as possible.
“Just call me Luc, Miss Bower.” He muttered and turned off the road.
I won’t deny the number of things that did to my flippy little girl heart and to be honest it was kind of aggravating the hell out of me, less then 15 minutes with the guy and my hormones were all of a sudden out of whack, that was just great for Zombie Assassination.
We pulled into the Z.A. camp; it was just that, a camp complete with tents and a fire pit, I wondered if someone was going to start singing kumbaya. Luc cut the engine and hopped out of the highlander, I followed suit, draping my leather jacket over my shoulder. He grabbed my duffel for me and we headed into the camp.
There were only two other operatives plus the Commander who was no where to be seen. Luc gestured to a young dark skinned man wearing jeans and white t-shirt, “This is Mike Lowry; he was a Marine before joining the W.A.Z.” He explained, “Mike, this is Jo Bower.”
He grasped my hand in his, using his other hand to sweep brown locks from his hazel eyes, “Welcome to the team ma’am.”
“Thank you.” I smiled politely as a woman stepped out from one of the tents, she wore black shorts and a training top, she had long dark curls dancing down to her waist and dark blue eyes, and she skirted her gaze over me, sizing me up. I tensed, and pulled myself up to my full height to tower over her. The woman snickered and laced her arm through Luc’s, he straightened, “Jo this is Shannon Arkan, she’s a weapons specialist and-”
“And his girlfriend.” She finished, flashing her blue eyes my way.
Well now, I really wasn’t going to like her but then again I wasn’t here to make friends, I was here to kill zombies and talk to the commander. Luc moved away from her, I couldn’t gauge his emotion but it would’ve helped if I could see his eyes or maybe I just really wanted to see his eyes…damn, not good at all for Zombie Assassination. But I think overall he was displeased with Shannon and she knew it because she swelled her lower lip into a pout. Ew. He took my arm and began to lead me into the jungles, “Come on, me and you are going out to the range.”
I turned and finger waved at Mike and slid a devilish leer towards Shannon, yeah I wasn’t here to make friends. I turned back to Luc; he’d acquired a black case and was staring forward, he’d let go of my arm but my skin still tingled from his touch.
“She isn’t my girlfriend.” It had been silent so hearing him speak caught me off guard, “Excuse me?” I muttered.
“Shannon, she isn’t my girlfriend, it’s the end of the world and we… it doesn’t matter but she shouldn’t act unprofessional especially in front of a new recruit.” He whispered and stopped suddenly.
I opened my mouth to speak but then I saw where we were and nothing came out. We stood on top of a cliff side looking down into a beach, the black sand sparkling like gems, the dark blue waves moving to meet it; it would have been beautiful if it weren’t populated by at least a hundred of the undead. Luc smiled and took off his sunglasses and clipped them to the front of his shirt; his eyes were the deepest emerald I had ever seen, he started speaking as he opened the case and began to assemble a Remington Sniper Rifle, he paused when he was finished and slid the gun into my hands. The cold metal against my skin felt heavenly, it’d been too long. Luc slid behind me, his hands moving around mine to make sure I had the right grip, I took a deep breath, and my heart beat faster than I would have liked to admit but damn he was gorgeous. He moved to my side again and pointed down at the sea of zombies, “You don’t have to make headshots, but hit at least five of them.”
I looked down at the beautiful beach and the zombies marring it, I lifted the Remington and looked down through the scope, instinct took over. I noticed a zombie with a bloated belly and a mop of straggly hair, I pulled the trigger and he fell to the ground in a heap of his own brains, one. Two, a skinny zombie with half of his right arm missing that strangely looked like my high school biology teacher, I pulled the trigger. Three, a zombie with no arms and a missing eyeball, he didn’t remind me of anyone but I pulled the trigger. Four, a zombie who vaguely looked like Elvis, I pulled the trigger. And five, a female zombie with black hair, missing part of her face, guess who that reminded me of, I pulled the trigger. I felt the buzz in my chest, the adrenaline, this is what I did, this is who I was and its weird to think of making death as a life style but it was mine.
I lowered the Remington and began to disassemble it, I put it back in its case and gave it a pat for good measure and turned back to Luc; he was staring at me with that unreadable look and I was a little bit afraid I’d disappointed him; he met my gaze, “What was your branch again?”
“Army.” I muttered, even though I had never been in the military a day in my life.
He nodded slowly and took the case from me. We didn’t speak as we headed back towards camp, I didn’t like that and I had things to do. Luc gave the case to Mike as we arrived and put his hands on his hips, he studied me again, then turned, “Shannon, come spar with Jo.”
She came out of a tent and snickered at me, “Love to.”
I really didn’t have time for this, as much as I would have heartily enjoyed kicking Shannon’s ass, I needed to speak to the commander, I sighed, better make this quick.
We stood at opposite ends of the camp, she ran at me, instinct kicked in; I moved sideways took hold of her wrist and bent her arm behind her back, because of the momentum, I bent to hard and it broke with a crack. Can’t say I was sorry about that. Her eyes widened and she howled in pain as she hit the ground. I turned away and headed towards my things; I dug in the side pocket of my duffel and pulled out a pack of blacks and silver lighter. I savored my first drag from of the cigarette, I knew she had gotten up and I knew she was coming towards my back; I reached down and pulled the 9 mm Glock from it’s holster at my back and pressed the barrel to her forehead. Luc and Mike took a step forward, their hands reaching for their weapons.
Luc’s green eyes were blazing at me but I forced myself to ignore it, “Take me to the commander, now.”
“Sweetheart, you just pulled a gun on one of ours, why would we do that?” Luc drawled.
Well, damn. “I don’t want to kill her; I just need to talk to the commander, right now.” I said, meeting his gaze, “Please.”
He stared at me, stared into me, and then moved his gaze away, “Fine.”
The Commander’s tent was a few miles away from the rest of the camp, it was dark and smelled of vanilla incense; I took another drag of my cigarette and stopped just outside.
“You’re too young to be smoking that Josephine Dillinger.” She called and I tensed, my cover blown but I didn’t care.
“I’m twenty-five.” I replied.
“Too young,” She repeated and I could hear the motion of things as she stood but I still couldn’t see her.
“The world’s gone to jack shit; smoking is hardly going to kill me anymore, you leathery old bat.” I called back but put it out on my heel.
The Commander finally stepped out into the light, her hazel eyes were sparkling as she smiled at me, “Hi baby girl.”
My throat tightened and I smiled back at her, “Hi grandma.”
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